Rethink Your Thinking About Creativity
Written by Shadley Grei
“Creativity is just connecting things.”
People often celebrate creativity as the spark that ignites original ideas—a talent reserved for a select few. But what if creativity wasn't just a mysterious gift, but a skill you could cultivate systematically? By rethinking creativity, we can transform it from a spontaneous act into a structured process that drives business success—and helps avoid common corporate pitfalls.
Common Understanding
In the traditional view, creativity is an unpredictable force, a flash of inspiration that strikes when least expected. It's seen as something innate, an expression of originality that cannot be forced or structured.
The Limitation: While this view celebrates creativity as something pure and untamed, it limits how businesses can use it. How many opportunities for innovation are slipping through your fingers because you view creativity as just spontaneous inspiration?
A Different Take
What if creativity could be systematically harnessed and applied to business strategies? This approach involves structured ideation techniques, cross-industry inspiration, and a supportive environment that nurtures creativity.
Structured Ideation Techniques: Methods like brainstorming sessions, mind mapping, and the SCAMPER technique provide frameworks for generating ideas. These methods push teams to explore a wide array of possibilities.
Cross-Industry Inspiration: Drawing from different industries can fuel creativity in unexpected ways. For example, a tech company might find inspiration in the hospitality industry's customer service innovations.
Cultivating a Creative Environment: Creativity flourishes in environments that encourage experimentation and collaboration. Leaders can foster this by providing the right tools and cultural support that encourage creative risks.
Missed Opportunities
A major pain point for companies that misinterpret creativity as merely spontaneous inspiration is the missed opportunities for innovation and growth. When organizations fail to see creativity as a process that can be harnessed, several issues arise:
Underutilization of Talent: Employees may feel their creative potential is overlooked, leading to disengagement and a lack of proactive innovation.
Stagnation in Problem-Solving: Companies may struggle to solve complex problems, relying on conventional solutions and missing chances to innovate.
Inconsistent Innovation Pipeline: Without a structured approach to creativity, the pipeline of innovative ideas becomes inconsistent, leading to missed market opportunities.
Inability to Scale Creativity: Failing to embed creativity across all levels of the organization makes it difficult to scale innovative thinking, resulting in slower response times to market changes.
Ideas Into Action
To truly embed creativity into your business practices, it’s essential to move beyond viewing it as a sporadic event and instead treat it as an integral part of your organizational strategy. Below are practical steps you can take to cultivate and harness creativity systematically within your teams, driving innovation and ensuring that creativity becomes a sustainable and reliable asset for your business.
Develop a Creativity Framework: Establish processes that make creativity an ongoing practice rather than an occasional burst of inspiration. For example, a mid-sized marketing agency implemented a structured creativity framework by integrating cross-functional brainstorming sessions and tapping into trends from unrelated sectors. This approach not only led to a breakthrough product but also positioned the agency as a thought leader in innovative marketing strategies.
Implementation Suggestion: Schedule bi-weekly cross-functional brainstorming sessions where teams are encouraged to explore new ideas and tap into trends from other industries.
Encourage Cross-Disciplinary Learning: Promote a culture where team members explore and learn from different fields. This can be facilitated through internal knowledge-sharing platforms or guest speakers from other industries.
Implementation Suggestion: Set up monthly knowledge-sharing lunches where employees present key insights from a different industry or discipline.
Build an Environment of Psychological Safety: Ensure your team feels safe to express unconventional ideas without fear of criticism. Celebrate bold thinking, even if it doesn't always lead to immediate success.
Implementation Suggestion: Introduce an “Idea of the Month” award that recognizes and celebrates bold, unconventional thinking, regardless of the outcome.
Leverage Technology for Creative Collaboration: Use tools that allow teams to collaborate in real-time, share ideas, and build on each other's thoughts. Technology can be a powerful enabler of structured creativity.
Implementation Suggestion: Implement a collaborative platform like Miro or Trello where teams can easily brainstorm, share ideas, and track the progress of creative projects.
Ready to transform creativity from a flash of inspiration into a reliable business tool? Start by rethinking how you approach it. Identify areas where structured creativity can be implemented, and challenge yourself to apply the methods we've discussed. You might just uncover your next big innovation.
About the Author: Through Grei Matter, strategist Shadley Grei has helped a wide range of clients turn ideas into action, from local thought leaders writing their first book to media industry powerhouses like Disney, Conde Nast, and Hasbro. With a focus on narrative-driven innovation, Shadley excels at fostering strategic collaborations and driving growth.
